


Tara and Eli: The Dream Couple...... or So We Thought

by seacretlivesoftheforbidden



Category: Long Time Crush - Fandom
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-12
Updated: 2016-10-11
Packaged: 2018-08-21 23:55:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,269
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8265049
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seacretlivesoftheforbidden/pseuds/seacretlivesoftheforbidden
Summary: Tara and Eli have been friends for almost 9 years. Best friends through elementary school, grew apart in 6th grade because of schedules, and now in 10th grade they have 4 classes together. Eli gets his homework from Tara while she sits there having a giant hopeless crush on him. Then one day after math, everything changes for good.......





	

**Author's Note:**

> This is partially based off of a personal story but the majority of it is something that I see as one of the cutest things ever. If you have any suggestions for future chapters please leave them in the comments below. Thanks!

“Breath in, breathe out. Breathe in, breathe out. You’re okay. It’s just 4th period. It’s just geometry. You got this. Just ignore him.”  
Lies. All lies. You know you’re telling yourself lies, but you’d rather lie to yourself than admit the truth; you like him.  
You’ve known him for 8 years, going on 9. You never really fully acknowledged him until middle school. It was the first time you guys had been separated and that’s when you guys grew apart. Even with a few classes together within the last three years, you two just stopped talking. Sure, there were a few conversations (mostly arguments over fandoms) but nothing like it used to be.  
“Hey, Tara, did ya’ get the homework done last night?”  
You jump a little. “Uh, yeah. Let me get it out real quick.”  
“I didn’t scare you did I?” You can hear him laugh just a little at seeing you scared as you pull out your folder.  
“No. Here’s the work.”  
“Liar, but thanks for the homework. I owe you one.”  
“More like one thousand, genius.”  
“Sure.”  
You roll your eyes at him, but at the same time you just want to laugh and stare at him for a while. Sure, things between you and Eli had gotten better this year. 4 classes together 5 days a week can do that, but you feel like your relationship won’t be the same as it was before. There won’t be anymore running around on Sunday afternoons ’til the parents wore their voices out calling your names, no more hide and seek in the woods and running across wild animals, and no more secrets between you two.  
“Tara. Tara! You okay?”  
You had been lost in your memories again. “Uh yeah. Why?”  
“C’mon T. You were zoned out when I came in and you just zoned out again.”  
“It’s nothing Eli. Really. And when’d you start callin’ me by that nickname again?”  
Eli rolled his eyes like it was no big deal, “Since when do I need a reason? We used to call each other by our nicknames all the time!”  
“Emphasis on used to Eli. You haven’t called me that since 5th grade.”  
“Well maybe it’s time I start doing it again,” Eli said quietly as he leaned closer to you. All you could think about were how beautiful his big brown eyes were. You could only hope that your face wasn’t turning red as you gave him a rather defiant look. “Here’s your homework back. Thanks for the grade, T,” he said as he handed you the homework packet back.  
“You still owe me,” you say as you lean back into your seat.  
“Sure, T. C’mon you know I’m good for it.”  
“Could you be any more of an ass, E?”  
“I could try. Oh, and yeah. I caught that,” he said as the teacher, Mr. Cahill, walked in.  
“What did you supposedly ‘catch?’”  
“That’s enough, Miss LeBelle. You know my rule about talking in class.” Mr. Cahill looked at you with a stern look, and it scared you a little. This was the first time you’d ever gotten talked to about talking in class and this was the class where you and Eli caught up with stuff.  
“Yes, sir. I’m sorry,” you say with a slightly shaky voice.  
You don’t talk at all through the class. You only respond to Mr. Cahill once when he collects your homework. The assignment is online work. Wonderful. An assignment that is so boring you can get lost in memories and think about everything you missed. About before your mother’s death. Before your family fell apart. Before you realized how much Eli meant to you. Everything happened all at once. The end of 5th grade brought excitement, going into 6th grade, meeting new people, and hanging out with your friends, especially Eli. You always thought that maybe if you two had classes together, you could work on projects together. See each other more. But that didn’t happen.  
There were 4 sections of your 6th grade class. Each section had a certain set of teachers and everyone would compete in grade competitions at assemblies. Eli was put on the main rival team of your’s. When the school district changed the rules in 7th grade, Eli was on one of your classes, but you two rarely talked. The same in 8th grade, but 2 classes together. Then none in 9th. But suddenly in 10th, 4 classes. Half of your classes were spent in the same room as Eli, trying not to get distracted, especially by his appearance.  
Eli wasn’t athletic or particularly smart, but somehow worked his way into all of the advanced classes. He was tall compared to you, but then again, almost everyone is. You at 5’0” and Eli was 5’7”. He had short dark brown hair, or maybe it was black. You’d never paid that much attention because you were more focused on his eyes. They reminded you of some dark chocolate cake that you had in New York when you were in 2nd grade. He wasn’t muscular but he wasn’t a stick like most of the other guys at school. You never knew why you picked this up, but he always smelled really good when he walked past you. Like the candle you got for your birthday in 7th grade.  
“Hey, T. C’mon it’s time for lunch. What’chu been doin’ all hour?” Eli out his hand on your shoulder and looked at your computer. “Why are you still staring at your desktop picture?”  
“Oh! Uh…”  
“You get lost in thought again?” Eli smiled down at you knowing that he was right. “Come on. I’ll make sure it doesn’t happen the rest of the day.”  
“Like I need that. I can take care of myself,” you say closing your computer and shoving it into your backpack. “It’s not a big deal. Just, you know. Stuff.”  
“T, I’ve known you for almost 9 years. This is not just stuff.”  
“Yes, it is.” You keep insisting that it’s nothing but you know he’s going to figure it out. The last time you acted like this was right before -  
“Wait… you got yourself a crush don’t you,” Eli asked as you walked across the quad. “C’mon, T you only acted like this one other time and that was right before -“  
“Okay, Eli you can stop now. Don’t mention him.”  
“Hey,” Eli stepped in front of you and held your hands up towards his chest. “Tara, look at me,” he said. When you looked up, his eyes made you instantly calmer, but you hoped your physical appearance didn’t change. “I know it’s been 6 months today since you broke it off, but I’m here if you ever need to talk. I know how it feels, both sides of it. I’m here for you, T,” he pulled you into a hug, and you felt safe. His arms felt the strongest in the world and even your breathing slowed down a little.  
“Okay,” you managed to say. You could feel tears in your eyes and you told yourself not to cry in front of him.  
“Hey, I can feel you crying,” as he pulled away and looked at your face. He put his hand on the side of your face as he wiped the tears away.  
“Eli, what are you doing?”  
“What I shouldn’t have stopped doing. Middle school stopped me from being there for you and I’m going to fix that,” he said. You were glad no one was around because you were sure your face was bright red.  
“Eli…”  
“Tara, are you okay?”  
“No. I’m not,” you couldn’t stand to look at him right now.  
You didn’t walk away fast enough and he grabbed your arm. When he swung you around you slipped in some mud but Eli caught you by your waist. He had one arm around your waist and one hand holding onto your wrist. You had been dreaming about something like this for a while but you never thought it would actually happen. Even if something like this ever happened again, you would be happy. Then something did happen.  
Eli pulled you up and at this point you were standing very close to him. He let go of your wrist but kept his other arm around your waist. Eli pulled you closer but you didn’t know that was possible.  
“Tara, I’m sorry. I’m sorry for what I’m about to do and I really hope you don’t hate me after this but I’ve been wanting to do this for a while and I don’t think I can go on without it.”  
“E… what are you -“  
“Just come with me.”  
He took you over behind a tree and took your backpack off for you. He set yours and his down a foot away and backed you up against the tree.  
“Eli what the hell are you doing?” You started to get a little worried, but for the moment you were fine.  
“Relax, Tara. I’m not going to do anything bad to you. I swear. All I want to know is one thing.”  
“What’s that?”  
“Can I kiss you?”  
In that moment, you froze. Eli was standing in front of you, looking into your eyes, and there was no way for you to run. But you didn’t want to. You tried to talk, but your face turned bright red and the heat felt hotter than it had ever been before.  
“Tara, if you don’t want me to I understand. I do. I’ve just had this huge crush on you since 5th grade and lately I can’t get you out of my head. And seeing you torn up, maybe about Harry, it kills me,” he looked so serious and so genuine. You could see into his beautiful brown eyes and they looked just a little more beautiful to you. His voice was so soft and sincere. You were afraid to believe him, but after 4 years of liking him, you wanted to know if it was really worth or not. Were you wasting your time?  
“Tara?”  
“Eli…” you can barely talk. Your emotions are overwhelming and on top of that your cramps are starting up again. The hormones in your body couldn’t decide what to do.  
“Okay, T. I understand.” He slowly backed up and picked up his backpack. “You don’t feel the same way.”  
“No! Eli wait!”  
“Tara, don’t. Please don’t try to make me feel better. I knew this was along shot anyways.”  
“Long shot? What do you mean?”  
“C’mon, Tara! Look at yourself! You’re amazing, gorgeous, smart, you’re perfect. Too perfect for me.” He started walking towards the cafeteria.  
“Eli, no! Please, Eli come back!” You were almost in tears. All you could do was collapse to the ground and try to hold back tears. “Eli, please!”  
Eli turned around and ran back when he saw you on the ground.  
“Tara what’s wrong. Seriously. You’re really worrying me. First you’re zoning out all the time, now you’ve collapsed and I bet part of that is because of me and I’ll leave you alone if you want me to but -“  
“E, just shut up. Shut. Up.” You were scared that this would scare him off but you just wanted him to shut up for God’s sake.  
“Okay… okay.” Eli stood up and said, “Okay. I’m sorry. I’m sorry for everything I said. Please just forget it. Please.” He looked at you for a second then you saw tears in his eyes.  
“Eli, what’s wrong? Wait… don’t answer that. I know what’s wrong.” He just stared at you and cried.  
“Tara, I can’t do this. Just…”  
“E, come ‘ere.”  
He walked back over to you as you pushed yourself up. Eli grabbed your hands and held them close to his chest. All he did was cry and it started killing you. You pulled one hand away from him and you put it on the side of is face, hoping he’d start understanding how you felt about him. When you did that, one of his hands followed yours and held it, right where you wanted it.  
“Tara… what are you doing?” His voice was shaking through the tears, all you wanted to do was hug him but you were scared. You didn’t want to scare him at all.  
“I’m doing what I’ve wanted to do, E.”  
“Tara, don’t mess with me right now. Please.” He was scared. Scared to believe her, scared of losing what he might have.  
“I swear I’m not, E.”  
“What?”  
“E…”  
“T, I understand. I feel like I know the answer to my question now.”  
“You should.”  
“Is it a yes?”  
“Yes.”  
Eli’s face immediately relaxed. His eyes were happy and his tears turned to tears of joy. He grabbed both of your hands tighter and he had one of the biggest smiles you’d ever seen on his face. One of his hands wrapped around your waist and the other went to the side of your face. You held his hand against your face and you felt your face go red again. This is what you wanted for so long.  
“Tara…”  
“Eli, shh. It’s okay, E.”  
Then it happened. It was better than you could ever had imagined. But it all happened so fast. It wasn’t like one of those romantic first kisses the you see in Hallmark movies, but it wasn’t an awkward forced first kiss either. Somewhere in between, in a way. It was quick, but not too quick, enough time to process everything. Eli’s arm tightened around your waist, pulling you closer than you’d ever been before.


End file.
